How Do You Know?
by Mass Effecting Your Pants
Summary: Naruto x Sasuke, Romance, Humour, Slight Drama, AU, Slice-of-life-ish, Drabblish. Rated for sexytime and language. He wasn't sure he'd heard right immediately. And then Naruto bent down and whispered it against Sasuke's chest again and again. Sasuke felt he could hardly be blamed, then, for getting spunk on Naruto's chin.


_Been watching too many rom coms obviously. When I should be working. All I do is work…it's sad. I should be a millionaire – then I could write fanfiction all day…it'd be great :-P This fic is written entirely to cheer myself up, but I hope it makes you happy too. Drabbly-ish, slice-of-life-ish. Lost in Kishimoto? What? I don't know what you're talking about *runs away*  
_

**How Do You Know?**

_-It's how you deal with shit-_

"Fucking hell!"

Sasuke slammed the phone down with enough force to move the coffee table across the tiles a few inches. Naruto poked his head around the corner of the kitchen.

"Um. Everything alright?"

Sasuke slumped forward and gripped his hair, remembering a moment too late that he had painstakingly styled it. He considered lying but Naruto was far too cluey.

"They gave away our table."

Naruto moved closer, squinting and still adjusting his shirt collar. "What?"

"I said," Sasuke heard his voice shake slightly, "they gave. away. our table."

Naruto was quiet for a long moment.

"Mother fuckers," he said eventually, but didn't seem particularly concerned. "Well, we could-"

"You don't care?" he quietened at Sasuke's low tone.

"It's not that I don't care," Naruto started, used to Sasuke's moods but no less wary of them. "I don't really mind where we go and _El Viva Italiano_ seemed kinda fancy, you know? A bit over the top. You know I'm not too good with fancy. And…"

Sasuke shoved his hands deep in to his pockets as Naruto trailed off.

"I was just-" Sasuke shrugged slightly with one shoulder "-trying something different. I thought we could try something different."

Naruto was staring at him with his stupid cluey observant sparkly eyes. Sasuke tried not to notice.

Then Naruto laughed.

"Sasuke, you idiot. I don't mind what we do. I like spending time alone with you more than a room of strangers. Obviously."

Sasuke's mouth had dropped open immediately to respond in kind to the insult, but Naruto was already in the kitchen and Sasuke's brain was catching up to the rest of the comment.

"Right."

"I make a really good eggplant pasta and sauce, for your _delicate_ vegetarian sensibilities."

Sasuke followed Naruto in to the kitchen. "Mmhmm. Sure."

Naruto waved a non-stick spoon at him. "You doubt my amazing cuisine skills? Ha! I shall prove my worth yet again! Pass me the eggplant, bottom of the fridge…the one that looks like your face."

Sasuke threw it at him, vaguely disappointed Naruto caught it so easily. "I might go get changed."

Naruto stared at him. "What? Why?"

Sasuke gestured at himself, a brow cocked. "All dressed up and nowhere to go."

Naruto grinned at him. "But you look so hot. Help me with dinner?"

Sasuke felt his face heat at the compliment, still not entirely used to Naruto's open affection. "You are as messy in the kitchen as you are in basically everything else, so I'm at least going to save my jacket."

Naruto laughed and turned to the sink, filling a pot with water for the pasta. "Fine but hurry up. I hate cutting onion so that's your job."

"Idiot," Sasuke rolled his eyes for show and shrugged his jacket off as he made his way to their room, hanging it at the back of the wardrobe.

He glanced back toward the kitchen but Naruto was already humming and banging around. Sasuke snuck out the small velvet box that had been burning against his thigh all day, and slipped it in to the jacket's inside pocket, hidden and safe.

Tonight was probably a good time but Sasuke had been thrown for a loop and needed to regroup.

He'd get another chance.

_-It's the little things-_

Sasuke threw his keys in the glass bowl on the counter and trudged to the lounge. He'd had a fucking shit day at work and was ready to bitch it out with Naruto.

"Hey," he said as he flopped down on the sofa beside Naruto, and then stopped.

Naruto looked at him sideways, eyes red-rimmed and watery. He gestured to the fishbowl that sat on top of the bookshelf, now empty.

"Gamabunta died."

Sasuke chewed on his lip. He had hated the bizarre dark red fighting fish as soon as he clapped eyes on it and never let Naruto forget it. But Naruto loved the crazy thing.

He slid along the couch and held an arm up. Naruto took the invitation immediately and squeezed against him, breathing out a choked sigh when Sasuke curled his arm around and squeezed Naruto back.

"Movie?" he asked quietly.

Naruto nodded.

As Sasuke pointed the remote at the tv, he couldn't rightly really remember why his day had been so bad.

_-It's what you say-_

"I'm telling you," Naruto said again, still flipping through the preowned games pile, "Princess Peach is way cooler than Princess Daisy. She has her own DS game."

Sasuke scoffed, shaking his head. "Idiot, she always needs rescuing. 'I'm sorry, but the princess is in another castle' ring a bell? She's a weak character used as a plot device."

"She's a _classic_ character. Daisy's just thrown in to appease female gamers."

"She's thrown in because Peach is a whingy, archaically constructed bitch. Daisy is way cooler with her yellow dress, and her brown hair fights against the ditzy blonde damsel in distress typecast. Offense _intended_."

Naruto stared at Sasuke over the pile of games, eyes sparkling mischievously. "Now I think you're reading too much in to it. It's a _game_, Sasuke. Stop taking it so seriously."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and elbowed Naruto as he slipped past to glance over the new releases. "Don't start something you aren't willing to finish. We will argue about this until we're old and decrepit and I will still beat your lame ass in to the ground with _reason_."

Naruto laughed. "I'll hold you to that."

_-It's what you don't say-_

Sasuke turned the small velvet box over and over in his hands.

He'd had plenty of chances.

And every single time he'd chickened out.

Decided there would be a better time.

He was running out of excuses and was left with the truth: he was _fucking scared_.

He gripped the box tightly and strode in to the living room, picked up the remote and turned the tv off.

Naruto squawked immediately and threw his hands in the air. "The _fuck_, Sasuke? I was in the middle of a boss fight! You wanna know how long it's been since I found a save point? This had better be worth it."

Sasuke sat beside him, fidgeted a moment before popping the lid of the small box open and angling it toward Naruto. His heart was somewhere in his throat and what felt like a crazy with a hammer had taken up residence in his ribcage.

"Worth it?"

Naruto stared for what felt like hours to Sasuke at the simple white gold band nestled in the plush cushioning.

"Uh," Naruto cleared his throat when his voice bolted in all directions at once and tried again. "W-what exactly are you asking, Sasuke?"

Sasuke ignored that his own hands were trembling slightly and reached for Naruto's left hand, easing the ring out of its case and sliding it down Naruto's ring finger.

They both stared at it.

"Well?" Sasuke asked, voice low and barely there because fucking _hell_, he could barely breathe.

"That's what I thought," said Naruto, and then tackled Sasuke off the sofa and on to the lounge rug, kissing him until they were breathless.

Sasuke couldn't think why he'd left it so long.

_-I know because you tell me-_

"You're obviously just with me-" Sasuke interrupted himself with an uninhibited moan "-for the sex, aren't you?"

Naruto breathed a damp laugh into Sasuke's neck, his hands still moving. "The sex _is_ amazing."

Sasuke silently agreed, his eyes sliding closed as Naruto's clever fingers moved in and around him. His hips were moving of their own accord to the unpredictable rhythm of Naruto's touches and he pushed himself up slightly.

"Come on," Sasuke said, voice barely a whisper.

"We should do this more. All the time," Naruto leaned over Sasuke, breath hitching as he moved. "Every. _Day_."

Sasuke could already feel the pleasure and heat searing along his skin.

"Fucker," he moaned in response, hands sliding along skin as he pulled Naruto closer. "Knew you just wanted me for my body."

He felt Naruto smile before pressing him down with a long kiss, hips slowing to a deep, sweetly torturous pace. Sasuke's hands scrambled to hold something – _anything_. When Naruto decided to move like _this_…it always undid him. Opened him up and squeezed his heart.

He would fall over the edge almost screaming.

Even as Naruto breathed in his ear, Sasuke was already unravelling.

"I realised that I haven't told you something really important."

It took Sasuke a moment to understand the words spaced between Naruto's distracting moans.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Well?"

Naruto shifted back to look at Sasuke properly, his hands sliding down to link with Sasuke's against the bed even as they still moved together. His pace increased suddenly and Sasuke sucked in a fast noisy breath, pleasantly taken off guard.

"Love you."

He wasn't sure he'd heard right immediately. And then Naruto bent down and whispered it against Sasuke's chest again and again with every shift of their hips.

Sasuke felt he could hardly be blamed, then, for getting spunk on Naruto's chin.

"You bastard," Naruto moaned through his own orgasm, half-heartedly wiping a hand at the stickiness. "You came on my face."

Sasuke tried not to smile and only half succeeded, still breathing roughly. "It's your own fault."

Later he'd echo those two same important words in much the same way. Oh he had always known, but now Sasuke had heard them. Now he really knew.


End file.
